Yeah, But… I Can’t Afford SEO!

In many ways I’m an extremely budget-conscious person. I don’t like spending money when I can get the same thing cheaper and just as easily. But, over the years, I began to discover a timeless truth: You truly do get what you pay for!

Unfortunately, that’s a truth I had to learn the hard way. Cheap iPhone charging cables on Amazon rarely last long. Cheaper quotes from a handyman usually mean he doesn’t do a great job. Negotiate someone down in price, you’re usually negotiating down on quality as well.

I could go on, but I think most of you have experienced what I’m talking about. Which leads me to all you Yeah Butters who think they can’t afford SEO. The truth is, you can’t afford NOT to SEO your website! [tweet]

Not long ago a company came to us wanting to invest in SEO. They were currently spending over $1.5M per year on offline ads, which is no small sum of money. As we talked to them about an SEO campaign that amounted to less than 10% of their phone book advertising, they asked incredulously, “How do small businesses afford SEM?”!

Marketing Investment Is All About Priorities

I find it odd that we easily find money for entertainment, but when it comes to investing in our businesses, we suddenly can’t afford a good marketing campaign. Now I get it—one is a personal expenditure, and we are all need to enjoy life a bit. But if you look at the businesses that make the most money, it’s usually those that provide some form of entertainment! If even a fraction of our “entertainment” money went back into business growth, there is almost nothing that a business owner could not afford to do.

The beauty of online marketing is that it’s all trackable. If you knew that for every $1 you gave me, you would get $10 back, what would you do to scrounge up $100, $1,000 or even $1M? [tweet]

Unfortunately, online marketing isn’t as forecastable as that—there are no guarantees on your return—but good SEO has proven time and again to deliver profitable results. You just have to find the right partner to work with.

There’s Gold In That There SEO!

Some businesses understand the value of SEO. Many companies we partner with started with small SEO budgets years ago. As they saw their businesses succeed through their online marketing efforts, they continued to invest accordingly. These companies have grown several hundred percent because they realized the value in SEO and were not afraid to keep investing in it.

Not everyone can afford a large-scale SEO campaign. That’s OK, but you have to start somewhere if you want to get anywhere. [tweet] Many SEO firms offer everything from consulting for $100/hour to complete campaigns that run several thousands of dollars a month. Start where you can and grow your SEO budget as your business grows.

Take a little and turn it into a little more. It’s not the way to the quickest success, but at least its something. SEO isn’t out of your reach. If you think you can’t afford SEO, just remember that you can’t afford NOT to SEO even more.

Stoney deGeyter is the author of The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period!. He is the founder and CEO of Pole Position Marketing, a web presence optimization firm whose pit crew has been velocitizing websites since 1998. In his free time Stoney gets involved in community services and ministries with his bride enjoy and his children. Read Stoney's full bio.

Follow Stoney:

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.

"Our clients often tell us we're one in a million. Turns out we're really just one of a hundred thousand or so. But what they're really saying is that we get results that increase traffic, sales and ROI! Number one of a million? Yeah, that's where we put you when we velocitize your web marketing."